Mumbai varsity results mess: Congress demands Governor quit

Mumbai, July 29 (IANS) The Maharashtra Congress on Saturday demanded that Governor C.V. Rao accept moral responsibility for the mess in declaring this year’s Mumbai University examinations and resign.

In a strong statement, state Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant also demanded that the Mumbai University Vice Chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh be sacked and Education Minister Vinod Tawde and Minister of State for Higher and Technical Education Ravindra Waikar be dismissed from the cabinet.

Terming the crises plaguing the university as “extremely serious”, Sawant alleged that the ‘RSS ideology’ has held the education system in the state ‘to ransom’ and RSS connections were given priority over capability while making appointments to various key positions, including that of Vice Chancellor.

“While appointing the (current) Vice-Chancellor, persons with more experience and qualifications were bypassed to appoint Deshmukh, merely because he is well connected with the RSS and had spent three years with the RSS think tank, Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini,” Sawant said.

He urged the government to publicise the list of the applicants and inform the people how highly capable persons were sacrificed to appoint someone with a RSS background as the VC in 2015.

“As a ‘guru-dakshina’, the incumbent VC has accorded Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini the status of a research associate institute, and in future, it would award top degrees like MA in Political Science and even doctorates,” Sawant pointed out.

He condemned the VC for wilfully ignoring the administration of the university affairs owing to which the future and careers of lakhs of student is now at risk with results not being declared on schedule.

The Congress demands came against the backdrop of Governor Rao – who is the Chancellor of all universities in Maharashtra – pulling up the VC for the hugely delayed results of various examinations conducted in the first half of 2017.

In an unprecedented step on July 4, Rao summoned Dehmukh and ordered him to ensure that all results are declared by July 31, and appointed an independent officer to monitor the results progress and report daily to the Governor and the state government.

After a meeting with Deshmukh, Rao asked him to set up a ‘war room’ at his level to ensure declaration of results on time and submit its daily progress report to the Governor.

The Governor’s ire was prompted by complaints that as of first week of July, out of 477 examinations conducted by the university, results of only 51 were declared.

As per the Universities Act, the university is mandated to declared examination results within 30 days, but in no case beyond 45 days.

The developments took place in the wake of reports in media and other sources of the inordinate delays in declaration of examinations results which affected students’ admission to higher classes, professional or technical courses and even to foreign institutions.

A life sciences professor, Deshmukh, 51, took over the post on July 7, 2015, and there is widespread speculation over his fate now as many examinations results are yet to be declared with the Governor’s deadline ending on Monday.